Headlines from January 25, 2010
- Lebanese officials rule out terrorism in the crash of an Ethiopian airliner.
- Bin Laden claims credit for Christmas bomb plot; U.S. officials say no, plot originated with an offshoot group in Yemen.
- Photo tour of Guantanamo Bay, including interrogation rooms, open-air cells, and the local dump.
- Laws limiting corporate meddling in elections have existed for a century; the Supreme Court changed all that by cherry-picking precedents.
- Rules governing grocery bag fees confuse D.C. shoppers, stores--not everything you eat is food.
- Flow chart determines the edibleness of dropped food.
- "My rule is if you stare at me more than 10 seconds, I'll talk to you and find out why you're staring at me."
- Just because someone downloads a file, it does not mean they would have bought the product. Confessions of a book pirate.
- Whether or not creative writing can be taught, its programs can be ranked, again and again and again.
- Freddy's Bar & Backroom may be outmatched in a fight against Atlantic Yards, but they're bringing heart--and maybe chains.
- Four decades after his shooting, Frank Serpico seeks solace in the woods, with neither TV nor internet.
- Ticket sales are down, fewer hospitality tents have been sold, and the title sponsor had to be lured with a cut-rate price. The Tour without Tiger.
- Video: This little guy does new things every day (or so).
- "Chemical Ali," Saddam's brother who ordered a gas attack that killed 5,000, executed after fourth death sentence.
- Spectacular CNN wraparound video of Port-au-Prince.
- Danticat: "My cousin Maxo has died. The house that I called home during my visits to Haiti collapsed on top of him."
- The war of French dressing: Burqa (niqab)-ban to be debated in France, extending school rule to streets.
- Self-adjusting eyeglasses promise to bring sight to the poor.
- "Virginity protection," i.e., artificial hymens, selling for $38 at the China-Vietnam border.
- Only a tourist with a kinky addiction to self-flagellation would pick Nigeria for a holiday. One of Achebe's takes on Nigeria.
- Interview with Alice Herz-Sommer, last person alive who knew Kafka personally.
- More gorgeous examples of art made with an iPhone.
- Sounds of Chicago street musicians.
- Evolution of the A-frame gambit in cover designs (see brief analysis).
- Wonderfully annotated glimpse into the work of Pina Bausch.
- Instapaper for the commute: James Patterson sells more books in one year than King, Grisham, and Brown combined.